Candy cutting machine



A. V. NEWMAN ET AL CANDY CUTTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 17, 1939 July 16, 1940.

July 16, 1940 A. v. NEWMAN ET AL CANDY CUTTING MACHINE Filed March 17, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 16, 1940.

A. v. NEWMAN ET AL 2,207,938

CANDY CUTTING MACHINE Filed March 17,l 1959 4 sheets-sheet 5 Vais' @295- July 16, 1940 -A. v. NEWMAN ET AL 2,207,933

CANDY CUTTING MACHINE Filed'March 17, 1959l 4 sheets-sheet 4 .M 11ml l 1| H1 num 1"' LA @6* f0.2 IIIIHIIII /20 jig- Patented July 16, 1940 VU1-11T1=1D STATES PATENT OFFICE Lewis, Melrose, Mass., assgnors to Edgar P. Lewis & Sons, Inc., Malden, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 17, 1939, Serial No. 262,546

1 Claim. (Cl. 10V- 22)l 'I'his invention relates to improvements in. a candy cutting machine which receives the strips of candy, such as nougats, and cuts thestrips in individual pieces of the desired size.

In the manufacture of nougat candy it is customary practice to makelarge slabs of the nougat. which are presented to cutting knives .to divide the slabs into strips. The subsequent cutting of the, strips linto individual pieces in many cases is per i formed manually to the extent that the operator feeds the candyto a rotary cutting knife. v

It is yan object of our invention to providel an improved machine for cutting nougat pieces which will require little attention from the operator while in operation, and `which is designed to.

be readily and quickly adjusted to handle strips of the nougat candy of different widths, and to out the candy into uniform pieces of any desired size. v

It is further an object of this inventionto pro-l vide a candy cutting machine in'which 'a' rotary cutter is employed mounted on an arm for vertical movement withv respect -to the' strip of candy, and including a conveyor'intermittently movable to feed the candy towards the cutting knife. The intermittent movement of theconveyor and the movement of the rotary knife into cutting position may be maintained in timed relation by driving means from a single source of power.

It is' further an object of our invention to provide improved means for holding the nougat piece as'it is being cut in order to prevent being thrown by the motion of the knife.

Further objects and advantages of our improvements will be more readily apparent from the 3 following description of a preferred embodiment of the machine as shown in the attached drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine with parts broken away for clearness;

40 Fig. 2 is a front Ielevation of the machine;

Fig. .3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the `plane indicated 3 3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail elevation of the Geneva drive for the conveyor;

45 Fig. 5 isa fragmentary plan view of the candy feeding conveyor; i

Fig. 6 is a cross section taken on the plane indicated 6-6 in Fig. 5;

50 Fig. '7 is a fragmentary plan view of a drive for the rotatable knife; and

Fig.' 8 is a fragmentary front elevation of the knifeand presser foot for the candy as it is being cut.

The candy cutting machine illustrated includes a frame made up of a table I0 supported by the legs I2, the driving motor I4 is mounted on the table lll and transmits power to the main shaft I6 through the sprocket gears I8 and 20 which are coupled by chain 22. turned manually by hand-wheel 23. The cross braces 24 provide bearing support 26 for the main shaft I6. The counter shaft 28 is also mounted on the braces 24 by the springs 30, and power is transmitted from the main shaft to the counter shaft through the sprocket gears 32, 34 and chain 36. Chain cross bars 38 and 40 are provided to support the three counter shafts 42, 44 and 46. 'I'he shaft 42 is driven from the counter shaft 28 through the meshing beveled gears 48 and 50; shaft 44 is driven intermittently from shaft 42 through the Geneva Wheel 52 having the radial slots 54 which are engaged by the pin 56 of the guiding disc 58. The intermittent motion of shaft 44 is transmitted to the shaft 46 through change gears 60, 62 and 64. The gear 60 being mounted on a shaft 44, the gear 64 being mounted on shaft 46 and the idler gear 62 being mounted on an arm 66 which is adjustably iixed in position by the bolt'68 engaging the slot 10.

Any desired amount of intermittent movement may be obtained by the selection of the proper sizes of the gears 60, 62 and 64. A conveyor belt 12 is supported at one end by the driving roller 14, and an adjacent guide roller 15, and at the other end by an adjustable guide roller 16. The guide roller 16 is rotatably mounted at 18 in thev block 86 which is slidably mounted in the frame part 82 and is movable to tension the conveyor belt by means of the adjustable bolt 84. The bolt 84 is xed in adjusted position by the lock nut 86. The` shaft 88 which supports the driving roller 14 is mounted in the bearingsil beneath the table I0.

Intermittent motion is transmitted to the conveyor belt from the shaft 46 through the sprocket gears 92, 94 and the sprocket chain 96. An adjustably mounted idler gear 98 is provided for engagement with the sprocket chain. 96. The conveyor belt may be made of any desired length so that a considerable supply of candy may be assembled on the conveyor belt for feeding to the cutting knife. The upper run of the conveyor belt rests upon the table l0 up to a point just before the driving roller is reached, rat which point the table is cut away as indicated at |00, and as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5. The driving roller is mounted to extend into the opening |00 and the pick-up plate |62 is fastened The main shaft may be by the screws |04 to the table, and receives candy from the conveyor belt.

As shown in Fig. 6, an L-shaped guide member |06 is mounted on the table at one side of the conveyor belt and an angle bar |68 is provided at the opposite side of the conveyor belt. A guide strip I is provided carried by the pins 2 which are received as bosses H4 of the angle bar |63 whereby the guide stripl may be moved and adjustably xed in position to accommodate various widths of candy strips which are fed by the conveyor belt. The guide rail is held in adr` justed position by the screws IIS which engage the pins H2. In Fig. 5 a strip of the nougat candy IIB is shown on the conveyor belt as it is fed towards the knife. The rotary disc knife |2|i is supported at the outer end of the arm |22 which is pivotally mounted at |24, in the support EZ Xed to the upper side of the table by the bolts |28. The knife arm |22 is moved up; and down by thev adjustable eccentric arm |30 which is pivotally attached to the arm |22 at |32. The eccentric arm |39 has an eccentric strap |35 engaging the eccentricrli on the counter shaft 28. Power is transmitted to the rotary knife from the main shaft i6 through the sprocket gears |38 and |49 coupled by the chain |42. The gear M0 is mounted concentrically with respect to the pivot |26,` for the arm |22 and is fixed with respect to sprocket gear |44 from which motion is transmitted to a sprocket gear llli mounted on the shaft Hi8 for the knife through the sprocket chain l. The knife arm |22 has mounted thereon an offset arm |52 which carries through the pins |513 a presser foot |56. The foot member |56 is resiliently held in position by the compression springs |58 and the presser foot |55 has at one end, in the direction of the rotation of the knife,- a downwardly bent portion |60 which as illustrated in Fig. 8 will direct the candy piece |62, as it is cut off, into the hopper |64.

In operation the candy strips are laid upon the conveyor belt at the far end of the conveyor and are intermittentlyl fed towards the cuttingv knife through the movement transmitted to the conveyor belt from the driving motor through the Geneva drive and the adjustable change gears. As the rotary cutting knife moves upward the conveyor belt moves to feed the end of the candy strip into position for the next cutting operation of the knife. As the knife moves downwards the conveyor belt will be stationary and the end of the candy strip will be gripped by the presser foot The candy pieces as they are cut oif are prevented from being carried around or from being thrown by the knife through the provision of the presser foot and the depending arm |56, and therefore are forced to fall into the hopper |64. By the adjustments provided, different widths of candy strips may be handled by the conveyor, and the size of the pieces out may be regulated through the means for adjusting the travel of the conveyor as it is intermittently moved step by step.

In a `candy'cutting machine, a frame, forming a table, a main shaftmounted in they frame be-v neath the table, a parallel counterV shaft driven from said main shaft, a conveyor belt for feeding strip candy `to the machine, the top run of said belt being supported by said table, means for iml parting step-by-step. movement to the conveyor beltfrom said counter shaft comprising a Geneva drive and lchange gearsfor varying the step movement, a knife carrying arm mounted for Vertical swingable movement above said table, eccentric" 

